In recent years, the world has witnessed a growing wave of local initiatives in support of public schools.

Teachers,
cultural associations and civil society have been playing an active
part in grassroots experiments aimed at helping schools in the creative
elaboration of new educational methods, also exploiting information
technologies.

Here
answers are coming from those directly faced with educational issues,
in contrast with the more common top-down reforms, where experts’
committees draw up didactic experimentation plans to be put forward to
willing teachers.

Experiments
like that are often very effective but, unfortunately, they rarely get
known beyond the immediate sphere of their promoters. Moreover,
they tend to be short-lived because promoters don't have the strength
to sustain them and a suitable supporting network is lacking. They
are like drops in the ocean: they apparently cannot change the entire
educational system. But the ocean of whole human community could be
flooded by many such contained experiments that would transform it, if
the most meaningful of them could be fostered, spread and developed.

OBJECTIVE OF THE BOOK

Aim
of this book is to collect the most significant educational
achievements carried out by teachers, school administrators and local
associations working together with public institutions, from primary
school to university, in a form that can be used by both scholars and
people involved in improving the education system.

TARGET AUDIENCE

This book is aimed at

Pedagogy
researchers interested in the strategies devised by educators to
increase learning willingness, to create a relationship of trust with
students, and reduce the rate of school failure.

Social
scientists investigating the educational impact of society on young
people and the value of experience transmitted to them by adults

Local
policy makers who will find in the book a compendium of ideas arising
from the research of educational remedies to the growing inefficiency of
traditional methods.

School administrators, in their effort to assess and promote effective knowledge and educational practices

Teachers
and actors in the world of education who recognize that traditional
methods do not always work and are therefore looking for new educational
solutions

RECOMMENDED TOPICS INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO THE FOLLOWING:

Socio-constructivist learning
(from activism to social constructivism, workshops and learning by
doing, cooperative learning in the classroom, learning as
research-action, meta-cognitive dimensions of learning)

School inclusion and reduction of the impact of disabilities (implementing
full inclusion programs; strategy for the inclusion of persons with
disabilities; assistive technologies; compensatory and dispensatory
measures in order to facilitate learning; individualized learning)

Educational initiatives in collaboration with, or started by external organizations (local, cultural, sports and charity organizations).

Online collaborative resources(Potential
impact of introducing internet tools into school; teachers’
collaboration in a community of practice; school as a real/virtual
environment; e-learning tools; educational use of social networking and
of other tools, from textbooks to class websites, and of hand-held
devices; online cooperative learning).

Practitioners are invited to submit an abstract, less than 400 words, of their proposed paper.

Abstract should feature an informative title that contains all the key elements of your experience

Text
should clearly highlight the pedagogical issues and explain the
learning experience that has been carried out; authors should specify
the topic, the type of school and age of the pupils or students
involved.

Please get the template.

Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by July 4, 2011 and sent chapter guidelines.

Full chapters are expected to be submitted by September 12, 2011.

All
submitted chapters are to undergo a double-blind review process by at
least three experts. Authors will be notified of the result of the
reviewing process by November 12, 2011.

SCIENTIFIC ROUTE

Authors
will be instructed to divide their chapter into a descriptive part and a
structured part, so that assessment and comparison of the most
meaningful features of the detailed educational activities can be made.

An
analysis of all submitted chapters will be made by a team of
researchers from Bologna University. The outcome will then be discussed
with all authors and finally published as a specific section of the
book, as a guide to scholars through the collection

During 2012, approved reports will be circulated as widely as possible, so that the more significant experiences can become occasions for learning and research furthering, as well as an inspiration towards an improvement of educational methods.

Authors who are available and willing, will participate both in this circulation of reports and in the analysis lead by the research team of Bologna University.

Audra Daubarienė, Center of Foreign Language (Kaunas University of Technology)Wallnöfer Gerwald, (Free University of Bozen)Lisbeth Amhag, School of Education, (Malmö University)Luigina Mortari Department of Philosophy, Education and Psychology, (University of Verona)Silvia Carbotti, (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Turin)